Attending Strangers' Funerals: Crashers; Voluntary Mourners; Etc.

[rynner2]

'Grim eater' banned from funerals
A fake mourner dubbed "the Grim Eater", who gatecrashed funerals just to eat the food on offer, has been warned off by undertakers in New Zealand.
By Paul Chapman in Wellington
Published: 7:00AM BST 03 Jun 2010

The man attended up to four funerals a week, even taking home leftovers in a "doggy bag" container.

Danny Langstraat, a director of Harbour City Funeral Home in Wellington, said his company finally became so irritated with the intruder's behaviour that it took a photograph of him, which it distributed to its branch offices.

The firm also alerted grieving families to his presence.

"He was showing up to funeral after funeral and, without a doubt, he didn't know the deceased," Mr Langstraat said.

"We saw him three or four times a week.

"Certainly, he had a backpack with some Tupperware containers so, when people weren't looking, he was stocking up," he told the Dominion-Post newspaper.

Mr Langstraat said the man, in his 40s, was respectably dressed and did not look like someone who lived on the streets.

"He was always very quiet and polite, and did as the rest of the mourners did in paying his respects."

The man has stopped turning up since a staff member took him aside and had a stern word in his ear, telling him he could not take food home.

Tony Garing, president of the Funeral Directors Association, said it was difficult to stop people attending funerals.

"If it's in a church, or even in a funeral home, if a notice has been published in the paper it's essentially a public event."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... erals.html

 

[WhistlingJack]

Reminds me of The Jolley Gang:-

My dad's memorial service was going so well. Then the ghouls turned up

Society spectres are back at the feast

 

[OneWingedBird]

That is bloody weird and creepy, Whistling Jack.

And the guy choking on the nicked food. I do try not to find people checking out funny, but, well... reaped the wild wind on that one i think. :lol:

 

[Peripart]

... the guy choking on the nicked food. I do try not to find people checking out funny, but, well... reaped the wild wind on that one i think. :lol:

To paraphrase Oscar Wilde, you'd need a heart of stone not to laugh at that particular death.

 

[hunck]

Mystery mourner has been crashing every funeral at local church for 14 YEARS to tuck into free buffet at wake

It is claimed the unnamed woman has joined mourners at almost every funeral for the last 14 years and even chats to grieving family members and at one recent funeral ate buffet food ‘like there is no tomorrow’.

But it was revealed today that the bogus mourner is known to the local priest who said he had spoken to her and gleaned that she believes it is her “duty to attend as many church masses as possible.”

The bemused priest added that he could not stop her attending funerals, adding: “I can’t exactly say you can’t come here.”

Father Noah Connolly, of the Holy Redeemer Church in Slough, Berkshire, said the religious woman for some reason believed it was her duty to attend services.

He said: “Every funeral we have she comes and if there is a reception afterwards she makes her way to it without invitation.

“She is a Catholic woman and she is convinced she needs to go to as many masses as possible. She has been coming and going since I have been here for the past 14 years.”

 

[EnolaGaia]

You UK residents might consider a side job as a professional mourner ...

Now You Can Hire Fake Mourners To Cry At Your Funeral
Melanie Hall, The Telegraph Mar. 28, 2013, 10:30 AM
British mourners are renting "professional sobbers" to blub at funerals to make people believe the deceased was really popular.

For £45 an hour, the fake mourners can be rented to cry for the duration of a funeral service in order to swell the numbers at funerals.

Ian Robertson, the founder of Rent-a-Mourner, in Braintree, Essex, admits the idea may be unfamiliar to the British, although the phenomenon is popular in places such as Asia.

The mourners-for-hire are briefed on the life of the deceased and would be able to talk to friends and relatives as if they really had known their loved one. ...

Rent-A-Mourner Website: http://www.rentamourner.co.uk

 

[Swifty]

You UK residents might consider a side job as a professional mourner ...


Rent-A-Mourner Website: http://www.rentamourner.co.uk

I recruited my old flat mate to be a fake mourner once ... the deceased was a friend of mine and had died in our building. I learned that his sister was worried that his dad ... I can't even tell this without anyone thinking bullshit but his dad was in a position of power .. she was worried that his dad would think he didn't have any friends and she was partially right .. so to skip to the end of this one, Dan rinsed the free bar, I apologised to anyone who would listen, we were asked to leave, she told me "That's OK, Paul would have loved it" .. that day was f*****g embarrassing ..

BUT ..

Dan read a beautiful poem, he spent time looking through English classics, I can't remember which one he chose but think Shelly or Byron or some other classical English poet .. he stood there in a flowery shirt (because it was a humanist funeral) in front of everyone we'd certainly never met before and rocked this poem that caused the dad of Paul to start crying .. so then Dan rinsed the free bar, as per the start of this story and we were asked to leave .. to be honest, Dan earned those drinks but the family won't ever know why except for me and dead Paul's sister.

 

[EnolaGaia]

This is more "awkward" than "strange" ... In recent years it's become common for lots of unrelated people to attend the funerals of US military veterans who die alone with no known family. The stories of such veterans' end states proliferate through social media, whereupon sentimentality and patriotism motivate large turnouts.

In this Florida case the deceased veteran's situation wasn't quite as advertised ... Oops ...

Thousands showed up for the funeral of a veteran with no family. Then the truth came out.

On the day of Edward K. Pearson’s funeral, traffic in Sarasota, Fla., came to a standstill. An estimated 4,000 people showed up to pay their respects to the 80-year-old Army veteran, and the roads were so jammed that the service had to be delayed for nearly an hour while the car carrying his ashes was stuck in transit.

Hardly any of the mourners packing Sarasota National Cemetery for the full military funeral on Oct. 1 had met the man they were there to honor. Instead, they had come because of a brief obituary that had gone viral, saying that the elderly veteran had no immediate family and inviting the public to attend his memorial service.

It was a heartwarming story. But the truth turned out to be slightly more complicated.

As Sarasota Herald-Tribune columnist Chris Anderson recently discovered, Pearson actually had two sons and had walked out on his family when the boys were teenagers. Until their father’s obituary went viral, they had been under the impression that he was dead. But even though the two men came forward the day before the service, the funeral home didn’t inform the public that Pearson did, indeed, have living family members. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nati...ran-funeral-after-viral-obituary-he-had-sons/

 

[littlebrowndragon]

My mother's cremation took place at a crematorium with 2 chapels which were back to back with each other. Both chapels were in use on that day. As is customary, her nearest family members i.e. my sister and I, were shaking hands with the other mourners as they left after the service. Finally a man, a total stranger and the last of the mourners, approached and shook our hands. "You won't know me", he said., "I was meant to be at the service in the other chapel but came in here by mistake. When I realised I was in the wrong place the service had already begun and I was unable to leave. My condolences anyway." He touched his hat and walked off.

That funny incident brightened what was otherwise a pretty ghastly day.

 

[Ascalon]

I heard there was a movie extras agency that offered an odd funereal service.
They would supply a mysterious stranger, complete with a single red rose, to stand, like a John Le Carre character, at the back of a graveside gathering, just looking enigmatic.

I want it!

 

[Lord Lucan]

I heard there was a movie extras agency that offered an odd funereal service.
They would supply a mysterious stranger, complete with a single red rose, to stand, like a John Le Carre character, at the back of a graveside gathering, just looking enigmatic.

I want it!

She is available:

 

[EnolaGaia]

This UK woman has made a vocation out of serving as a voluntary mourner or funeral crasher.

‘Funeral crasher’ says she’s been to send-offs for 200 strangers

eane has a bit of an obsession with death. So much so that she estimates she’s been to the funerals of 200 strangers.

The 55-year-old has travelled the world since 2012 when she first crashed one by accident.

After noticing her regularly visiting graves, cemetery workers at her local haunt started to contact Jeane when the deceased didn’t have any family or friends.

They would then ask her to attend the funeral. ...

Now people ask her to join so that nobody will ever be buried or cremated alone. Jeane also spends time photographing and tidying graves.

Jeane, an actress, photographer and artist, from Islington, London, says: ‘I’m proud to be that person that goes to strangers’ funerals when there is no one else who can attend. ...

‘I accidentally walked in on a funeral at a church but raised as a Catholic I knew not to leave once there. Even though I didn’t know the person I was deeply moved.

‘When cemetery workers started to invite me to services for veterans who had no one else to pay their respects I obliged and went along.

‘I realised that everyone has a story to tell, everyone has lived a life and should have someone around to remember them when they die.’ ...

‘I did a PhD in mortuary science and became a cemetery historian.’

‘Now I’ve attended nearly 200 funerals for people I don’t actually know – although I have lost count of the exact amount.’ ...

FULL STORY: https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/14/meet...ttended-send-offs-for-200-strangers-17559561/

 

[GerdaWordyer]

". . . at her local haunt. . . "

 

[catseye]

I didn't crash the funeral, but I suspect everyone wondered who the hell I was...

My best friend's husband died about five years ago. I went to his funeral, despite having only met him about twice, to support HER. Obviously she knew who I was, as did her close family who attended, but the rest of the mourners were from her husband's work (he'd been semi retired and freelancing for years) or his friends. Because I was there alone and my friend had her family with her, I stood alone, at the back for most of the ceremony. I saw that I was being glanced at now and again. but nobody asked me why I was there.

I was going to say 'secret lover', and touch a lace hanky to my eyes if asked. But nobody did, and I think my sitting with the family at the meal after the event showed that I was there in an 'officially sanctioned' capacity. Unless his wife and secret lover just got on very well...